These days, social media is abuzz with movie stars out and about promoting their films – one minute they’re addressing a bloggers meet up and the next, jet setting to different cities attending charity events, institutes and even playing cricket matches. And we are just as excited as our stars as there are three Pakistani productions set for release this Eid-Ul-Azha and no Bollywood film in sight!

The actors and makers of Actor in Law, Janaan, and Zindagi Kitni Haseen Hai are not leaving any stone unturned in promoting their films. And while we appreciate all their efforts and understand that these campaigns are essential for a movie, but the question arises – do these promotional campaigns define a movie’s success or not?

READ: Om Puri to join Actor in Law’s team for promotions

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Film promotions occur in coordination with the process of film distribution which generally include press releases, advertising campaigns, merchandising, franchising and media as well as holding interviews with the main people who are involved with the production. From our understanding, promotions are important for any release; because of the inherent high financial risk, film studios will invest in expensive marketing campaigns to maximize revenue early in the release cycle.

There are a lot of techniques involved in promoting a movie as seen ever since the revival of cinema took place in Pakistan in the form of releasing trailers, film posters, full episodes of morning shows on various channels which gives extensive coverage to the film, stars and director and even producers especially if it is Humayun Saeed who is an actor/producer both. Magazine shoots, radio shows, having an interactive session with people in hotels, through social media or simply clicking selfies and posting on various media pages with a hashtag of the movie’s name which makes people curious to know more about which movie the star is appearing in. Marketing can play a big role in whether or not a film gets the green light but audience research is a strong factor in determining the ability of a film to sell in theaters, which is ultimately how films make their money.

READ: Mehwish Hayat and Fahad Mustafa tell us why we should watch Actor In Law

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To make the debate a bit interesting, HIP decided to contact some of our favorite celebrities and asked them whether they feel promotional campaigns define a movie’s success or not?

Danish Taimoor (Actor)

“You see promotional campaigns can be effective but the success of a film does not depend on it. The film has to be good to be a success; promotions may attract the film viewers for the initial two or three days of the release but after that it all depends on the word of mouth.”

Wajahat Rauf ( Director /Producer)

“Worldwide promotions play a great role in the film’s box office but promotions will only get audiences to cinemas for the first few days; after that, all films purely work on merit and the fact whether it connects with the audience or not. I don’t think anyone can predict the success and failure of a film otherwise Spielberg would not have given so many flops. So promotions do help in informing the audience about the cast and release date but business is done on the film’s good quality and how engaging it is.”

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Jerjees Seja ( CEO ARY Digital Network)

“Promotions are very important in my view as when a product is marketed, only then do people get to know about it and decide whether they want to see it or not. If you have a movie which has not been promoted well then it may not attract that many viewers as people have no way of knowing who the cast is, when is it releasing etc. So we need to create a buzz, and to do that, marketing is done.

If you look at Suicide Squad, the marketing was superb but the movie did not fare up well because of its content. Ho Mann Jahan had a star cast but in the case of Janaan all the actors are new so we have to market the product a bit more so people become aware of it.

To create a buzz about a project the marketing is done, after that if the content is good, people will tell others and the movie will do good business.”

Mohsin Yazin (GM Operations Cinepax)

“Yes, promotional campaigns do help in making films successful but to a certain level, there are a few examples available who without extensive marketing may have flopped badly. There are other ingredients too which are important in movie making and local film makers are not focusing on those. In the past, 4 to 5 Pakistani movies flopped because of above mentioned issues as well as bad promotion strategy, and a few movies clicked only because they were bombarded heavily on media. But the higher ratio of flops has made audiences hesitant in watching Pakistani movies because they think all will have bad acting and lack in story telling and there ticket money will be wasted. This seriously doesn’t help cinema houses and in return we have to focus on foreign content which is acceptable to the audience due to heavy marketing which they see on TV channels and online mediums.

These days Pakistani TV channels have jumped into movie distribution business and are trying every promotion strategy of their media houses to promote the movie in the market and spread a positive word about it which helps in selling advance tickets and fills the first weekend of the movie. Unfortunately, the same benefits are not available to conventional distribution companies.”

Vasay Chaudhry ( Actor /Writer/GM Hum Films for content & production)

“Yes promotion campaigns are very important to us in Pakistan to get your film through to the audience as our films till now don’t have very massive trailer playing budgets (for different Tv channels). But If any film can manage the budgets for playing their trailer on various channels then so many public appearances should not be done (as we do). It kind of kills the charm of the whole thing.”

Ahsan Rahim (Actor /Director)

“Promotion campaigns do create the needed hype but eventually the film succeeds if it’s good. However promotions are necessary for making the audience aware of the movie; it’s just plain advertising.”

Mehreen Jabbar (Director / Producer)

“Promotions are important and one needs to get creative with them from project to project. They can definitely create hype for a film and get people curious but at the end of the day the film has to stand on its own.”

Najaf Bilgrami ( Director / Cinematographer)

“I would like to think not. The content should be detrimental and the promotional campaign should be a reflection of that. It should not try to sell the film as something else and quite simply lie to the consumer audiences.”

Ashir Azeem ( Actor / Director)

“I think yes they do but to a certain extent; they do play an important factor in the movie’s success. Unless people are made aware that there is a new movie out there, they are not going to go and watch it. After they have seen it then the movie defines itself and becomes a success if the content is good but yes promotion is very very important.”

Sanam Mehdi ( Freelance Writer/Executive Producer at Dawn Films)

“A film is a product and it has to be marketed so people are made aware of its presence. Promotions play the role of letting people know but the fate of the movie depends upon its usage. Marketing and promotions do not play part in the success of the movie; it just gets the people to the cinema and that too if they like the trailer and its quality as people are very smart.”

“If you take Jaawani Phir Nahi Aani, a lot of promotional campaigns were done but along with the marketing its content was also very good and that is why for 3 months it sustained so well. Due to promotions, a movie may get a good opening weekend but after that the success depends upon the movie’s quality and content.”

Verdict

Where promotional campaigns may get the audiences in to the cinema and the movie may enjoy a good weekend but in the long run, it will only succeed if the content is good so where promotions do play an integral part, promotional campaigns do not define a movie’s success.

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Do promotional campaigns define a film’s success? was last modified: September 5th, 2016 by greendecker